The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-09-17

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Gated, it would ruin their health, i'm
pair their womanly delicacy and mod
esty unsex them, unfit them for their
proper sphere. Against these railing
accusations, Miss Lyon had nothing to
plead but her heavenly vision and she
plead as for her own life.
In person she was no sylph nor fairy.
In manner she was not one of the
graces. She was strong minded, en-
thusiastic, visionary, ambitious. At
least, that was the estimate made upon
her, even by her friends. People said
that her own masculine intellect unfit
ted her to Judge of the mental capacity
and need of ordinary women. Her ro-
bust constitution and perfect health
untitled her, so it was said, for determ
ming the health, strength and power
of endurance of other women. And so
even her own fitness for the work stood
in the way of It's success. All this
made her self-appOinted task difficult
and wearying, but she bore bravely up,
never for moment abating her pur-
pose or faltering in her onward step.
God called her, "Here am l." went
back to him in firm, strong accent. If
she had had less self denial, less self
sacrifice, less faith and hope, and earn
estness, she would never have accom-
plished the work that was given her to
do. In the warmth and strength of
her conservation, lay her power to do
and to dare. Prof. William S. Tyler, of
Amherst College, in his address at the
semi-centennial observance, said: "Af-
ter all, it was not her untiring perse-
verance, her executive power, or her
all-embracing and self-sacrifcing love,
though these were seldom equaled, but
it was Christ formed in her, and work
ing by her, that was the source of her
excellence, and the secret of her power. :"
She had that genius, that subtle skill
which moral earnestness always i'm
parts to those who possess it in any
large measure. Her idea was that of a
Christian institution, in which the
Bible should be the rule of right and
duty, the touchstone of life and char
acter, every pupil a sacred trust to be
educated for the Master.
To women as to men, the field is the
world. They have their work to do,
their penny to earn, their corner to till,
their harvest to garner in. In the la
Dor of fitting women for this new
sphere, Mount Holyoke has been faith
fnl as it has been foremost. The relig-
ious spirit and earnestness which Miss
Lyon breatiE6d INTO II has remained
with it till to-day. In 1859 occurred
the first reunion of Holyoke mission
aries, when fifteen women graduates,
then employed at many stations of the
American Board, gathered there with
their husbands and children. The final
summing up of the missionary service
of these graduates shows one hundred
and dninety-seven given from its alumnH,
to the work of humanizing and Christ
ianizing distant heather lands.
In the light of a past, brought to
view by the fifty years backward glance
from these exercises at South Hadley,
we look into a future for educated
women full of promise, Of holy possi-
bilities for them, and for the world
Much of mans social and political well
fare, his civilization, his development
in esthetics, in law, in etiquette, has
come out of his treatment of women.
The unfolding of the political, as well
as the social order, toward truth, and
beauty, and happiness, has kept pace
with mans ways and manners toward
women. 1t begins to be seen now, in
our day, that civilization is led by
the feminine factor, as the receptive,
spiritual, religious, believing element
among the people. Christianity, which
has been the worlds prime educator,
had its source, not less in the womanly
tenderness and self-denial than in the
masculine strength of the Lord Jesus.
In the spread of Christianity, woman
may behold her own exalted and ever
frightening future.